How Data Is Changing the Way Offices Are Run
Building owners are using data collection and artificial intelligence to help control systems like heating, lighting, air quality and even the flow of workers.
A security camera with machine-learning abilities at a co-working space at 717 Texas Avenue in Houston. Credit.Michael Stravato for The New York Times
By Patrick Sisson
April 27, 2021, 9:00 a.m. ET
Developers are harnessing a growing obsession with data to improve office buildings in ways that could cut costs and streamline operations, saving owners millions of dollars annually.
The field, known as property technology, or proptech, has become a booming sector in commercial real estate as property managers seek to use data collection and artificial intelligence to help control systems like heating, lighting, air quality and even the flow of workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a surge in adoption of information systems by real estate companies in Asia, according to a proptech study released today by Mingtiandi.com, the region’s leading property news source.
Nearly three-quarters of the real estate professionals surveyed for the study said their firms were either reviewing or considering launching a formal review of their use of information systems in response to the public health crisis. And that rethinking is already being translated into action, with 60 percent of respondents saying their companies are implementing new technology or enhancing the use of existing systems.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted vulnerabilities in existing business processes, but has also given real estate developers and investors in Asia fresh incentives to adopt online systems which are central to the proptech evolution,” said Mingtiandi founder Michael Cole, who authored the study.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a key accelerator of tech adoption by real estate companies in Asia, according to research by Mingtiandi which is set to be released on Tuesday, 19 January.
In a survey conducted last year, some 60 percent of respondents from Mingtiandi’s audience of real estate professionals in the region said that the coronavirus crisis has led them to increase or enhance tech system adoption, in an industry that has long been seen as resistant to change.
The findings on the impact of the health crisis are detailed in “Tech Adoption in Asian Real Estate: The Pandemic Drives Innovation,” a report being launched at an MTD TV in an online event at 10:00 am Hong Kong time.